Max Baucus: “This is a sober time. Our Nation is at war overseas and at home. Like all Americans, we are struggling to respond, to…”

“This is a sober time. Our Nation is at war overseas and at home. Like all Americans, we are struggling to respond, to hold together, to assume our responsibilities. Among other things, we in this Chamber have the responsibility to help get the economy back on track. The September 11 attacks took a bad economic situation--our economy was deteriorating--and made it significantly worse. I very sadly add, the tragic crash of an American Airlines plane yesterday in New York, I am sure, adds more angst and concern across our country, which has a very direct effect on people's emotions and psychology, but also, to some degree, on the economy, people's willingness to believe in the future. We had virtually no economic growth in the second quarter of this year, and we have had negative growth in the third quarter of this year, 2001. In addition, in October unemployment jumped from 4.9 percent to 5.4 percent. That is the largest jump since May of 1980. We also have reports of 638,000 layoffs of American workers announced since September 11. Manufacturing has been particularly hard hit. Last month, manufacturing lost 142,000 jobs.”